Diary of John's journey to South Africa
Title
Diary of John's journey to South Africa
Description
A description of travelling in convoy on the Highland Princess with 1,700 other Royal Air Force and British Army personnel covering the period 13 April 1942 to 20 May 1942. Including details of the onboard conditions, weather, a stopover, gun duty, attending lectures and wildlife sightings.
The writer left UK waters from port unknown on board the Troop ship Highland Princess (Royal Mail Line). He tells of the cramped and difficult conditions onboard making a big thing of slinging his hammock which stays still while the ship moves round it. Manning guns in various cockpits round the ship. All the time his thoughts are of home and all the good things in life he was leaving behind. The ship was part of a convoy, the sea state leaving most of passengers seasick. He tells of the escort destroyers searching for and depth charging enemy submarines. Life got better after he found where to obtain cigs, chocolate and tinned fruit. The weather gradually got warmer when a swim in the ships pool, boxing contests. Highland Princess eventually dropped anchor in Freetown after almost three weeks at sea.
Includes sketches, lists of aircraft identification numbers and notes of expenditure.
The writer left UK waters from port unknown on board the Troop ship Highland Princess (Royal Mail Line). He tells of the cramped and difficult conditions onboard making a big thing of slinging his hammock which stays still while the ship moves round it. Manning guns in various cockpits round the ship. All the time his thoughts are of home and all the good things in life he was leaving behind. The ship was part of a convoy, the sea state leaving most of passengers seasick. He tells of the escort destroyers searching for and depth charging enemy submarines. Life got better after he found where to obtain cigs, chocolate and tinned fruit. The weather gradually got warmer when a swim in the ships pool, boxing contests. Highland Princess eventually dropped anchor in Freetown after almost three weeks at sea.
Includes sketches, lists of aircraft identification numbers and notes of expenditure.
Creator
Date
1942-04
1942-05
Language
Format
Handwritten pages from a notebook
Conforms To
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
YSaundersJWG1324708v1
Collection
Citation
John Walter Gifford Saunders, “Diary of John's journey to South Africa,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed December 5, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/44148.